One of the key issues for the upcoming presidential election in South Korea is “economic democratization”. Its purpose is to reduce the gap between the rich and the poor by both respecting market economy and redistributing wealth from companies especially corrupted ones. This issue is directly related to temporary workers’ human rights because they are mainly facing social polarization and inequality in the society. [1] Hence, like economic democratization, temporary workers’ issues became a hot potato which has to be solved but is difficult to solve.

First, it is difficult for non-regular workers to have full-time positions even though they work more than two years at one workplace. As reported by the Korean Labor and Income Panel Study conducted over the past few years (2006 ~ 2010), the rate of change from temporary to full-time position has decreased steadily. Even though Non-Regular Worker Protection Law was established since 2007, its rate became lower and lower as time went by; 40 percent in 2007 and 32 percent in 2010. [2] In fact, people who worked more than two years as a temporary employee can get a full-time position or become a contract worker who obtains a permanent position, according to Non-Regular Worker Protection Law. [3] However, the problem is that although non-regular workers may get permanent positions, they are not likely to be treated as a full-time workers. Instead, they tend to renew the contract with the company every two years in order not to get fired. This situation shows that the law itself is abused by the company and it rather creates more workers who are neither a full-time nor a temporary employee. [4]

Second, many non-standard workers experience different kinds of discrimination and harassment at the workplace. For instance, male workers have more chances to become a regular employee than female workers. As stated in the National Statistical Office, the rate of full-time male workers has increased from 71.2 to 72.8 percent (left bars in the first graph), whereas that of full-time female workers has dropped from 59.2 to 58.5 percent (right bars in the first graph). [5] In addition, female non-standard workers are likely to be exposed to sexual harassment by co-workers. There was a case that several male co-workers required a female worker to have sex with them on the excuse of getting a full-time position. [6] We can know that non-standard female workers are in more vulnerable situations at the workplace.

The government needs to lay down efficient laws which can balance fair employment between men and women. Also, it is necessary to encourage temporary workers who already worked for two years by forcing companies to provide full-time positions. It is time to accept the fact conducted in IMF: no discrimination against non-standard workers helps improving Korea’s economy. [7]

About Us

South Korean Human Rights Monitor is a human rights portal supported by Korea Human Rights Foundation.
We provide news, information and insight in English about pressing human rights issues related to South Korea. The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of Korea Human Rights Foundation.
This publication is freely distributed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.